Salcombe / Bolt Head

Yesterday we had a day out at Salcombe / Bolt Head, a little under 1 hour from Enstone by RV. The route was a dead straight line of 136nm with (at 5,000ft) absolutely no airspace to avoid, which in the southern UK is quite unusual.

It’s a really nice smooth and well-maintained grass strip just south of Salcombe in Devon, on a headland known as Bolt Head. It isn’t quite cliff-top but is less than a mile in from the cliffs with an elevation of 430 feet and circuits to the south over the sea, making for some excellent scenery. The site was RAF Bolt Head during WW2. The operator’s website majors on you needing strip experience, but really this is one of the easier strips out there – wide and smooth with completely unobstructed approaches. Obviously whether the length is an issue depends on what you’re flying, but 600m is of no concern in an RV. The location means it is extremely well-drained and I am told the based pilots operate year-round without the ground conditions ever being a factor. They are also keen not to upset their neighbours and as a condition of using the strip ask that you avoid flying in a 2nm semicircle to the north.

PPR is online and easy. You get an automated email basically saying that unless you hear otherwise from them quite soon then you’re good to go. No ‘management’ there to greet you, just a hut to sign the visitors book and put the £20 landing fee in the honesty box – you can also pay online if you prefer. There is a portaloo also, but no other facilities. They are happy for you to camp with your aircraft, alternatively there is a campsite with the usual facilities a short walk away. On a sunny day (which it was) the aircraft parking area would be a really nice place to have a picnic and public footpaths cross the site so you can walk to the clifftop very easily.

We arrived a little after 10am and walked down to South Sands beach before taking the pedestrian ferry into Salcombe. The walk is about 1.5 – 2 miles on beautiful footpaths but does take you right down to sea level, so remember you’ll have to walk back up! This wasn’t a problem for us, but if it was you could always get a taxi back to the airfield. The walk down / up also takes you though a National Trust property called Overbeck’s Garden.

Salcombe has some of the most insane property prices anywhere in the UK outside of central London. Not much space, all very beautiful, full of tourists on a nice day. Plenty of opportunities to spend a lot of money on food and drink!

We swam in the sea, ate some lunch and then walked back up to the airfield. Recovered from all that with a little nap on the grass in the sun – a rare sunny day in England because the July weather in general has been horrible. Back in the air heading back to Oxfordshire by about 1600. I’d definitely visit again – the vibe is very relaxed despite the website – and would like to camp next time. We saw two other RVs arriving and departing, and a couple of local pilots were there exercising their aircraft. There is quite a smart hangar with some smart aircraft in it.

Now the photos, firstly entering downwind. The strip is quite hard to make out from here (and I’m still above circuit height, nowhere near as low as I seem) but you can see the main building at the site (a massive disused concrete bunker) just below the town of Salcombe in the centre of the shot above the leading edge.

On final, the town of Salcombe shown and South Sands beach (where the ferry goes from) directly behind the inboard edge of the aileron.

Parked up.

View on the walk down to South Sands beach.

Taken from South Sands beach, where we swam.